Byron Wien is Worried About Rest of Year

Though the veteran strategist thinks there is "a palpable degree of optimism" about corporate performance in the second half, he wonders whether its justified.

At the beginning of the year most economic observers had a realistic view of the pace of economic growth for the United States. As usual there were positive and negative cross-currents, but the consensus was that real growth would be about 2% for 2013. The Federal Reserve was engaged in a vigorous program of monetary easing, however, and a substantial amount (perhaps three-quarters of the total) of that money flowed into financial assets, driving the price of equities higher and keeping interest rates low. As a result of the strong stock market performance, some economists increased their growth estimates for the...